Bird Counts

Many thanks to everyone that participated in the 2011 Leadbetter Point Christmas Bird Count on December 17. For those of you not familiar with Leadbetter Point, it is a 15-mile radius circle generally in the area around Willapa Bay. This year, we had a total of 34 participants working in five sectors and two participants monitoring feeders.

We had good weather with temperatures ranging from freezing to about 50-degrees. Winds were not a factor. This sounds like perfect birding weather, right? It was!

In total, we identified 110 species with about half being water fowl and shore birds and the other half upland species. The least found group was owls with only 2 snowy owls being spotted. The most common species was Dunlin with 29,950 spotted. Second was Northern Pintail duck at 16,141. No rare species were seen but species unusual to the Willapa Bay area in December included Western Scrub Jay (5), Brown Pelican (1) and Orange-Crowned Warbler (30).

Most participants were from the Longview-Kelso-Castle Rock area. A few from Long Beach-Ilwaco. Others came from Seattle, Portland and Alaska to be day-long participants. We had four new people turn out and we hope they make the C an annual event.

The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is citizen-science at its best. You can help with this effort, whether you have ever gone bird watching or not. You will have the opportunity to meet new people with interests in birds, or spend time with friends from previous years. Observant eyes are needed for that day: the more the better. You can point out where you see birds and experts in your group can do the identifying; if you do know some of the birds in your area, so much the better. This is your chance to help collect the information which will direct decisions in the future, decisions which will affect how much natural beauty, including birds, remains for future generations.

Bring your binoculars if you have some, boots, warm clothes and a lunch, and join us for a day outside, looking closely at some of Nature's most interesting creatures, sharing the day with people who have similar interests.

On Thursday December 30, 19 volunteers participated in the thirteenth Wahkiakum Christmas Bird Count. The Wahkiakum Count straddles the Lower Columbia River, including the Julia B. Hansen and Lewis & Clark National Wildlife Refuges and the towns of Brownsmead, Knappa & Westport in Oregon and Cathlamet, Puget Island and Skamokawa on the Washington side. Weather was clear with a mild east wind, with a low near 28 degrees F and a high near 40.

The final species count is 114 plus two additional count week species, which is six species above average and one short of the record for this count circle.

Two species were new to the Wahkiakum CBC: a Redhead was at Little Island and a flock of nderlings, long overdue for this count circle, were on Grassy Island. A Black Phoebe was on Little Island, and a Northern Mockingbird was seen on Puget Island. Other species uncommon in this count circle included White-winged Scoter, Red-breasted Merganser, Red-necked Grebe, and Savannah Sparrow.

Br-r-r it was cold for our 30th Annual Cowlitz Columbia Christmas Bird Count, but there was no wind or rain (What a difference that makes!).

19 field observers and 4 feeder watchers enjoyed discovering 100 Species and 14,528 individual birds. We also had 6 additional species, we managed to miss on count day, reported within the count week,. The temperature ranged from 19° to 37°. We had a scrumptious potluck afterwards.

Thank you to all that helped.

We had a large number of all-time high counts - they are marked by HC. Low counts are marked with a LC. Seen in count week = CW. NC = Means new to our count.

Plan now for the 31th Annual 3CBC on January 1, 2012. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

Update: Some photos added.For the Leadbetter Point Christmas Bird Count (CBC), on December 18, 2010, we noted 100 species, plus three species for Count Week. Number of individuals: 36,784. Temps: low 34F, high 44F. Winds: generally brisk (5 to 10 mph) and often to at least 20 mph. Cloud cover 90% to 100%, rain about 60% of the day; some periods without rain, but at times heavy gusts and rainfall, and a few blasts of sleet and hail; 0.9 inches total precipitation. Wind and rain hampered views of water birds, and significantly decreased our ability to detect passerines. At least it wasn't raining all the time!

Our number of participants, 40 (36 field observers, divided among 5 sectors; plus 4 at feeders), was the highest